Albert Spaggiari emptied the coffers of Société Générale in Nice in July 1976, taking the equivalent of 26 million euros. The mastermind of the “heist of the century” has managed a 12-year run. Arrested in Nice in October 1976, he escaped on March 10, 1977 by jumping out of the window of the examining magistrate, 8 meters, all the same. He lands on a car, smashes the roof, then joins an accomplice who is waiting for him on a motorcycle. He turns around and mockingly greets the lawyer and the judge posted at the window. Later, an envelope arrives at the editorial staff of Nice Matin, sent by Spaggiari. Inside, money to compensate the owner of the car. Irony: the latter was on sick leave, because he had… fallen from a scaffolding!
Sentenced to life in absentia in 1979, Spaggiari will never be recaptured. Since then, this hilarious Zorro, a Havana always screwed in his mouth, will defy all the police in France by sending postcards, being interviewed on television and writing books… He will die in 1989 of cancer of the throat. Albert Spaggiari had robbed the vault of the Société Générale by entering through the sewers. “Without hatred, without violence and without arms,” he scribbled on a wall of the bank, before evaporating with the loot. His story inspired the film of the same title, Sans arme ni hatred ni violence directed by Jean-Paul Rouve in 2008.
